There is substantial evidence that there is no such entity as chronic Lyme disease. Indeed, there is not even a case definition for chronic Lyme disease. There are many websites that contain misinformation about Lyme disease....

The medical/scientific community uses the term “chronic Lyme disease” to describe individuals with objective evidence of longstanding ongoing infection, while the “Lyme literate” use this term to describe individuals with chronic, life-altering symptomatology without necessarily having biologic evidence of persisting infection.

This might be considered little more than a semantic debate (as Humpty Dumpty famously said, “A word shall mean exactly what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less, it’s merely a question of who’s to be the master”). However, since the “Lyme literate” construct is used to justify prolonged courses of antimicrobial therapy with significant potential for complications, impact on community antimicrobial resistance, and consumption of health care resources, it is essential that the terms be defined with clarity.

Untreated infection, particularly with joint involvement, can be chronic, lasting years. That said, it is essential to understand that the fatigue and cognitive difficulty seen in many individuals with Lyme disease are neither caused by or evidence of nervous system infection nor in any way specific to this disease.

What is Lyme disease then? The answer has to do with what is chronic and not chronic. We can speak of three steps: The first is a local infection around the tick bite, the next step is the bacteria more widespread in the body and it goes into the blood and to different types of tissues like the heart, nervous system and joints. The third step is what we can call a chronic or persistent illness - which is basically a rare condition, ie there are only a few patients that get chronic Lyme disease. If we treat with antibiotics during the first two phases will, in most cases, the infection disappear. But if you do not treat it can of course go through all three phases and be just chronic.

There are not many reports describing the natural history of Lyme disease in untreated patients. However, this one is very revealing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21173795 .
In this case, the patient was cured by the recommended regimen of oral antibiotics (doxycycline) after being untreated for 4 years.

Henry's case study that he kindly provided a link to, ultimately represents little more than an anecdote that got written up concerning a Lyme case that - based on the abstract - appears limited to joint involvement. It represents "a" history of one possible progression of untreated Lyme, and then apparent symptom resolution following what technically goes beyond the usual abx therapy.

I've another. This person went untreated for six years following the removal of several embedded ticks. He was declined prophylactic treatment because that was what the doctors were told the protocol to be, despite it being a Lyme endemic area. Despite at least two subsequent EMs, the patient was not tested and treated until six years had past (he was found at the time to be 2T compliant).

By this time, symptoms had progressed and were primarily neurological. In his case, treatment was not successful in resolving symptoms.

Regardless of all that, thanks both to X-member's and hv808ct's diligence, it would appear that other mainstream Lyme clinicians/researchers would disagree with the definition of chronic Lyme disease put forth in the article this thread primarily discusses.

The criticisms that you (Duncan) raise in paragraph #1 can just as well be applied to the example you gave in paragraph #2. There is no reason to believe that the case described in paragraph #2 is at all typical of what some believe to be characteristic of "chronic Lyme disease", however one chooses to define it. In fact, the case history described in paragraph #2 may be so unique that one must wonder whether it is appropriate to make any general statements as to how it may or not apply to "chronic Lyme disease". It likewise is anecdotal.